D.I.C.E. 08: Build or Buy? The Ubisoft View

Developers took to the stage at D.I.C.E. Summit 2008 to argue the merits of building or buying game technology, with the battlelines being drawn between Insomniac on one side, Epic Games on the other, and Ubisoft stuck in the middle.

Yanis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal, had the final word on the subject - noting that, stuck in the middle of two totally opposite philosophies, he was changing the argument.

This statment "Mallat said that there were three layers of innovation: technology, content, and tools. Technology includes elements such as AI, rendering, streaming and physics, but it is the latter two that are most important. "

Struck out at me. I would say that he is both wrong and right. Instead of saying "A" is more important than "B" i would say that each enables the next.

Think of it as the OSI model or Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

You have to satisfy each lower level need in order to enable the next. For instance, Content is impossible or useless without tools, tools impossible without technology.